A Forgotten Past
by mortalathena
Summary: Hiccup finds an unconscious girl on an island. He takes her back to Berk and when she wakes up, they find out she has lost her memory. Bad summary, but the book is better. It begins shortly after the first How To Train Your Dragon. Rated T because I'm paranoid. No romance, just friendship.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay. So this is my first FanFiction… also the first book I've published online… so sorry if it's horrible. I read through it a few times, so I'm 99.9% sure grammar and word choice are okay. Here goes nothing…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon. I wish I did, but unfortunately, that doesn't mean I do. : (**

**Now... on to the story! **

**Chapter 1**

Catherine Mary

I woke up with a throbbing head. I was lying on the ground and there was a boy kneeling next to me and looking at me with concern. Sitting next to him was a large black dragon who was also watching me, but his expression was one of curiosity.

"Are you alright?" the boy asked, but I was already backing away, using my hands to drag myself farther away from him. When I had moved so that the pair wasn't right next to me, I got up and turned, dashing into the forest. My instincts were telling me to get out of there. Fast. I heard the boy call out to me, but I was already gone.

I ran through the forest, trying to ignore my aching head and get away as fast as possible. I saw a streak of black, and the dragon landed right in front of me, the boy on his back. I let out a small scream, then turned, running in another direction. The forest end abruptly, and I had to come to a quick stop. In front of me was a cliff. I turned to go back the other way, but before I could, the dragon landed at the edge of the forest, blocking my exit. I was trapped.

Hiccup

We found the girl on accident. Toothless and I had been exploring. We saw an island we didn't recognize and I decided to have a look around. As soon as we landed we saw her. She was sprawled out on the ground, unconscious. I went over to take a closer look. When, I knelt down to see if she was ok, her eyes flew opened.

"Are you alright?" I asked, then I saw her eyes widen with fear. Before I knew it she was on her feet and running away. "Wait!" I yelled after her, but before I could even get the word out, she was gone. That girl was fast.

"Come on, bud," I called to Toothless, "Let's see if we can track her down. I want to make sure she's okay before we do anything else. Can you find her?"

Toothless just looked at me as if to say, _of course_.

"Right," I muttered as I got into the saddle, "Forget I asked. Okay, bud, let's go find her."

When we finally caught up to her, she was at the edge of a cliff. I slid out of the saddle. "Toothless, stay," I commanded in a low voice. I thought he might be the one scaring her. He did look pretty intimidating sometimes. I took as step forward and she scrambled back as much as she could without falling.

"I don't want to hurt you," I told her, "I'm just making sure your okay. I want to help." At this point Toothless must have gotten bored and decided he wanted to meet the new person, because he bounded over to her before I could stop him. I watched nervously, worried she would try to back up and find only air under her.

Surprisingly, the girl grinned and started to pet him. "Hello, who are you?" she asked.

"His name is Toothless," I offered. She turned, and her expression instantly changed from relaxed to fearful. Then she tried to back away, and fell off the cliff.

**So… How'd I do? Hate me yet? (laughs evilly at the horrified faces of the readers) I hope I got Hiccup right. I think I did, but I might be wrong. Please review! I will try to get the second chapter up next week, but I might put it up earlier if I get a bunch of reviews… Helpful criticism is welcome, but please don't put it too harshly, and don't just tell me that you can't stand the story or something like that. I can take some heat, but I'm not fireproof.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok. I'm posting the next chapter early as a Christmas present for all my readers. So, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Yes I own How To Train Your Dragon and it is based off my own dragon... OF COURSE I DON'T OWN IT! If I did, Catherine Mary would be in it.**

**Chapter 2**

Hiccup

I ran over to Toothless and slid into the saddle. As I flew after the girl, I saw her some how twist in midair and land on her hands and feet in the sand below. She started to get up, but before she could stand back up she collapsed. I landed and walked over to her. She was unconscious again, but nothing seemed to be broken. Still, she was obviously injured somehow, otherwise she would be conscious. I picked her up. "Come on, bud," I called to Toothless, "We need to get her back to Gothi."

When I returned to Berk, I heard a shout, and I knew the news that I had returned home with a stranger would be spreading quickly. As I expected, by the time I had landed the rest of the Berk teens and my father were waiting for me.

"What—" Astrid started to ask, but I cut her off before she could finish.

"We need to get her to Gothi," I told everyone, "someone get Gobber. Astrid, you need to go up there with me to make sure she's okay. Everyone else, stay away." I did even think Gobber should go with us. Unfortunately, he was the only one that could understand Gothi, so we needed him. I fully intended to make him leave as soon as Gothi didn't need him anymore, or as soon as the girl woke up, whichever came first.

Stoick was the first to ask what they had all obviously been thinking. "Why?"

"Because I think she's afraid of people," I told him. Then I left to take the girl to Gothi's hut.

I knocked and waited for Gothi to open the door before walking in and putting the girl down on a bed. The healer immediately began to inspect her. A few minutes later, Astrid and Gobber came running up. Gothi immediately started writing symbols with her staff in the sand that she always kept on her floor for this purpose. Gobber started reading it.

"Gothi says the girl has a head injury. She isn't sure how serious it is, but other than that she's fine," Gobber translated.

I stared at the healer in disbelief. "No other injuries," I repeated, "Are you sure?"

"Isn't that a good thing?" Astrid asked.

"Yes," I told her, "but… Astrid, she fell of a cliff. It looked like it was about fifteen, maybe twenty, feet."

This time, Astrid was looking at me in disbelief. "You're sure."

"I saw her fall over the edge," I told everyone, "I tried to catch her, but by the time I could get to her she had already hit the ground. And I don't think the head injury is from the fall, either. She landed on her hands and feet. She didn't hit her head."

Gothi wrote something in the sand. "Gothi says she'll check again, but you two need to leave," Gobber told us, "She'll be out for a while, so we'll let you know when she's waking up."

"Okay," I sighed. Then I added, "Gobber, if she shows any sign of waking, please leave. You can be a little… overwhelming and I don't want you scaring her on accident."

Gobber nodded. "Now go," he told us, "Gothi needs to work."

We left and went to find the others. They were sitting in the training arena. Everyone except my dad, that is, who I assumed had gone back to work. Astrid and I settled down as everyone watched us, waiting for me to explain.

"So, what happened?" Astrid asked when everyone was comfortable.

"Toothless and I found a new island," I started to explain, "When we landed to go explore it, we saw a girl sprawled out on the grass. I when to see if she was okay. She woke up, and when she saw us her eyes widened and she took off into the surrounding forest."

"You do realize she was probably scared of Toothless, right?" Astrid pointed out.

I glared at her for a moment. "Let me finish," I told her. Then I added, "that's what I thought at first, too. Toothless and I managed to cut her off at the edge of the forest. She was right next to a cliff. When we landed, I told Toothless to stay, then I tried to calm her down. After a little bit, Toothless must have gotten bored, because he walked up to her before I could stop him. When he got to her, she started petting him," I paused for a moment there, letting what I had just said sink in. There was silence in the group as they processed what I had just said. EVERYONE was scared of Toothless when they first met him. The only exceptions were the twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs, but they had all been flying dragons before then.

After a minute I continued on. "After that I talked to her again, and instantly she was scared. She turned around, took a step backward, and—"

"fell of the cliff," Astrid finished.

I nodded. "I flew after her, and I saw her twist in midair and land on her hands and feet. She started to stand up, but she collapsed. When I got to her I saw she was unconscious again. Gothi told me just now that the only injury she sustained was a head injury." Again, everyone was silent. Finally, I stood up. "I'm going to look at that island," I told everyone, "Gothi said the girl should be unconscious for a while. DON'T go to see her without me. I shouldn't be gone long. I'm going to see if there's anything there that can tell us about what happened to her."

Astrid got to her feet. "I'm going with you."

I nodded and watched as she ran off to get Stormfly ready. It took us about an hour to reach the island. When I saw the cliff that the girl fell off of, I pointed and yelled to Astrid, "That's where she fell." Astrid nodded, signaling she heard me, and glanced over at the cliff. Her eyes widened as she looked at it, and I could tell that she now understood my surprise at the girl's lack of injuries. It was not a short drop. I led her over to the spot where I found the girl.

"You were right," she told me as we climbed off our dragons, "That drop is at least fifteen feet. That girl is either really lucky or really talented. So this is where you found her?" I nodded.

"Let's start looking," I said.

**Ok. That's the chapter. Thank you scarlet (Guest), Snitchstar, and kaitlynn19 for reviewing.**

**scarlet: Sorry the last chapter was so short. Hopefully this one was better. And thanks!**

**I want more reviews, and you want another chapter. So here's the deal. Instead of not publishing the next chapter until I have more reviews, I will do something different. I will still post the next chapter in a week, but if 10 people review, I will post the next chapter EARLY. It doesn't have to be a long review, telling me what I could do better or whatever (though those are appreciated) it can just be a review telling me you want to see the next chapter early or something. Ok. Well, Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukah or whatever else your celebrating! Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

**O.k. Here's chapter 3. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the laptop I am typing this on, my book, my bed… Ok. I own a lot of things, but I don't own _How to Train Your Dragon._**

**Chapter 3**

Catherine Mary

I woke up with a massive headache. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was on a bed in a dark room. I saw herbs lining the walls, some tied together with a string and hanging on the walls, some in jars sitting on shelves. There was a low work table standing in a corner, on which some more herbs had been place, along with a few other things. Across the room, there was a second bed. I realized with a start that there was a girl sitting on it. I sat up quickly, moved to the opposite end of the bed and drew my legs in close to me, trying to get as far away as possible from her. My instincts were telling my to run, but she was closer to the door than I was. She would probably intercept me before I could make it to freedom. Besides, just the simple act of sitting up had made my head hurt worse. There was no way I would be able to run in this condition.

"Wow," the girl whispered, "you really are afraid of people."

I just stared at her, body tense, ready to run at a moment's notice.

"I'm Astrid," the girl said finally, "What's your name?"

My name? I had to think for a couple of minutes before I finally remembered it.

"Catherine Mary," I whispered, still on edge.

"Nice to meet you, Catherine Mary," Astrid told me, "Where do you live?"

I thought about it for a long time before I finally gave up "I… I can't remember," I stuttered, growing worried. I had lost my memory? The last thing I remembered was… running through the forest and falling off the cliff. Yep, I defiantly lost my memory. This wasn't good.

Astrid seemed a little worried as well. "What do you remember?"

"I was running through the forest, then I fell of a cliff. I'm sorry, but that's all."

"You lost your memory," she mutter, this time the worry was plain on her face.

Finally I gathered up the courage to ask, "Where am I?"

"You're on Berk," she told me, "that boy you were running away from, he's my friend. When you became unconscious after your fall, he brought you back here. You've been out for about a day now. I should probably tell the others you're awake. Will you stay here? I'll be right back."

I nodded. It wasn't like I could go anywhere. My head still felt like it was being used as a war drum. I couldn't help wincing at the pain in my head at even that small action.

Astrid looked at me with sympathy in her eyes "Head still hurts? Don't worry, I'm sure Gothi, our healer, has something for that. She'll be back later."

Astrid left, and in a few minutes she returned with the boy who had found me. I was still a little jumpy, but by this point I had convinced myself that they weren't going to hurt me. If they were going to, then they would have done it already, right?

After a minute of silence, the boy spoke. "Hi," he said, "I'm Hiccup. Sorry for scaring you yesterday. I didn't realize you were afraid of me. Usually everyone is scared of Toothless, so when you started petting him, I got confused and—" At this point Astrid punched him in the arm. "Ow!" he yelp, "What was that for?" I winced as the noise sent a stab of pain through my head.

"You were babbling," Astrid informed him, "I had to stop you somehow, and I knew talking over you wouldn't work."

Hiccup sighed. "So, Catherine Mary," I was surprised for a moment that he knew my name, but then I realized Astrid must have told him, "Astrid said you lost your memory. Is that true?"

I nodded.

"So you can't remember where you're from?"

I nodded again.

"Then you'll need some place to stay until we can figure everything out. Usually I would offer to let you stay at my house, but I didn't think that would be a good idea. My dad is nice, but he can be a little … overwhelming. Astrid said that you could stay at her house instead. Is that okay with you?"

I looked at Astrid who nodded encouragingly before answering, "Sure, if it isn't any trouble."

"Okay then, Gothi wants you to stay for a few more days to make sure you are healing, but after that you'll stay with Astrid."

At that point, the door opened and a child walked in. No, it took me a moment, but I realized it was an old woman. She pushed Hiccup and Astrid out before shutting the door. I watched as she walked around the work room, collecting herbs and grinding them up. She then put them in water and gave me the mixture.

"You're the healer?" I guessed.

She nodded.

"You want me to drink this?" I checked, not wanting to do the wrong thing.

Again she nodded, a smile on her lips.

I drank it, and after a minute I started to feel drowsy. Yawning, I curled up and quickly fell back asleep.

**Ok! That's the chapter! I'm not getting very many review. I don't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice… If you don't review, I'll send you yak nog! (for those of you who don't know what it is, it's a reference to _Gift of the Nightfury_.) Now review!**

**P.S. Thanks to Snitchstar and katlyn19 for reviewing.**

**P.S.S. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello! Guess what! I'm alive! And I'm back with the next chapter. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I was busy and lazy. Also I needed to get this chapter edited. Thank you to katlyn19 for editing it. Also thank you to my sister for editing all the other chapters. **

**Disclaimer: Good news! I bought How to Train Your Dragon with the millions of dollars I had! And then I woke up. So I still don't own it.**

**Chapter 4**

Hiccup

"So what do you think of her?" I asked Astrid as we walked back from Gothi's hut.

"She seems nice," Astrid replied, "You were right, by the way."

"Right about what?" I asked.

"She is afraid of humans," she told me, "When she woke up and saw me she started sliding back."

"Why do you think that is?" I wondered aloud, "She's more comfortable around Toothless than she is around us."

"Whatever it is, I don't think it has anything to do with us personally," Astrid commented/ "She wasn't scared of me for very long. It was only her initial reaction."

"I hope that's the case," I replied, "because otherwise it's going to be very hard to help her."

Catherine Mary

I was in the healer's hut for about a week before Gothi finally let me out. I slept most of the time, so when Gothi told me I was ready to leave I was full of energy. As I changed into the new clothes Astrid had given me, I had to stop myself from jumping up and down. Shortly after I finished getting dressed, there was a knock on the door. Gothi opened it to reveal Astrid. She looked at me.

"Do the clothes fit?" she asked.

"They're perfect," I assured her, while making my way toward the door.

"Are you ready to go?" she questioned, but I was nodding even before she finished.

As we walked out, I had to remind myself that I couldn't run ahead because I

didn't know where we were going. Speaking of which...

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Hiccup and I were going to show you around the village," Astrid told me.

I stopped. The excitement of being outside was soon replaced by the fear of being around

so many people.

Astrid, noticing my sudden change in attitude, stopped as well and turned to

face me. "Don't worry," she soothed, "everyone knows to stay away from you.

Hiccup and I will make sure they don't crowd you, okay?"

I took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

Astrid paused for a moment before asking, "Why are you scared of us?"

I though about the question for a little bit before shrugging. "Instinct?" I guessed, unable to describe it any other way. "Whenever I see someone who is unfamiliar, my first thought is to get as far away from them as possible. I don't know why," I explained.

Astrid nodded as if she had expected that answer. "Well, we should get going before Hiccup starts to wonder where we are."

We met Hiccup right outside the village. I noted with amusement that Astrid and Hiccup positioned themselves on either side of me with their dragons blocking the path behind me. The only way I could go was forward. It was as if they were afraid I might run away again. I didn't blame them. After all, I was already fighting the urge to run and had been ever since I had learned were we were going. As of now, we were only in the outskirts of the village, where there weren't very many people around during this time of day. I could't imagine how bad it was going to be when we got to the more crowded parts of the village. I took a deep breath as we started walking around, and Hiccup started talking about all the different places. It was going to be a very long day.

**Okay I know it was short, but at least it's something! I already have Chapter 5 written up, all I have to do is finish the edits. I'll try to post it next week. But if I get 5 reviews I will try to post it early. So, PLEASE REVIEW!**

**P.S. Thank you to katlyn19, Michaelamary, and Snitchstar for reviewing. Thank you to Saphirabrightscale for putting me on her favorite story list as well as her story alert and author alert lists. And thank you to Horsemadgirl for putting me on her favorite story list and her story alert list.**

**Have a great week! And don't forget to REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! I'm back with chapter 5! Thank you to katlyn19 for editing this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: One day I'm going to write a story that becomes very popular and then I am going to publish fan fiction on it just so I can say I DO own it. Then I will take it down and actually publish it so I can make money off of it. But today isn't that day. I don't own How to Train Your Dragon. :-(**

**Chapter 5**

Catherine Mary

The tour of the village wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was worse.

Everything was going fine until we got to the busiest part of the village. We found out that, not only was I afraid of people, I was also sensitive to noise. Very sensitive. As we were walking to the village center the noise hit me like a wall. I actually took an automatic step back as if I had run into a physical barrier. It was overwhelming. I could hear each voice and I was naturally trying to process all of it at once. Both Hiccup and Astrid looked at me with concern.

" Are you okay?" Astrid asked.

"I'm fine," I told her. "The noise is just overwhelming."

"Maybe we should come back later," Hiccup suggested, " when it's be less crowded."

I nodded, ready to get away from all the noise. Hiccup and Astrid led me away from the village to the edge of a forest. I was already starting to feel better.

"Better?" Hiccup asked.

I nodded, the quiet starting to calm me down.

"Well," Hiccup said, " you should probably stay away from crowded places."

I nodded again. We went over to an ocean-front cliff and sat down.

After a moment, Hiccup started talking. "While you were unconscious," he started to explain, "Astrid and I went back to where I found you and looked for clues about where you came from. When we arrived, we found these where you had been lying." Hiccup took something out of the bag he had been carrying. He then placed the items into my outstretched hand.

One of the items was a circlet. It was silver, with pictures of bears stamped around the edge. The other thing was a small bag. I opened it and poured the contents into my hand. The bag held at least a dozen large beads, also made of silver. At the bottom of that bag was a wide strip of white cloth.

"Do any of these things seem familiar to you?" Astrid asked.

I nodded. "These are mine," I confirmed, already tying the white cloth around my wrist, making sure the knotted part was on the outside.

"Are you starting to remember?" Hiccup asked, hope evident in his voice.

I shook my head. "Not much," I told him. "I remember that my parents gave these to me, but that's all. I still don't remember where I came from or how I got to the island."

I could see the disappointment on Hiccup's face. "Well, at least that's something," he replied, with a sympathetic half-smile on his face.

I nodded and tried to smile in return, though I'm sure mine looked just as weak. "I'm sure it will all come back to me eventually," I said, even though in reality, I felt like I never would remember anything.

"Well," Hiccup said, "I think the town center probably isn't as crowded now. Everyone is probably at dinner. Do you want to finish the tour and then go get something to eat?"

I nodded.

"Well let's go," Hiccup said as he started to stand up. Astrid and I did the same, and we started walking back towards the village even though I really wanted to run in the other direction.

**Ok. That's it! I know this is another short chapter, so sorry. I haven't finished chapter 6 yet, so I don't know how long it will take me to get it up. And please review! (does really adorable puppy dog face with quivering lip) The button is right down there.**

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	6. Chapter 6

**I know this is a short chapter, but I wanted to post something today. And I figured a short chapter is better than nothing, right? :-) Anyways, I just finished this chapter, so no one has edited it yet. I read through it once to check for mistakes, but that's all the editing I was able to do. I haven't had anybody else read through it because, like I said, I wanted it posted today. So, if you see any mistakes, please let me know! I will try to fix them.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon (from now on I'm just going to call it HTTYD), SO DON'T SUE ME!**

**Chapter 6**

Catherine Mary

That night, I had a nightmare. But this nightmare was different. When you wake up from most nightmares, you can tell yourself that everything is fine. You can tell yourself that the nightmare wasn't real, that whatever horrible thing happened in the dream never really happened. But this nightmare, it wasn't just a nightmare. It was a memory. I couldn't tell myself it wasn't real, that the events in the nightmare had not taken place, because I remembered them now. I remembered them all too clearly. I remembered that my parents were dead.

In my dream, I felt the heat from the fire. It had consumed my house, and my parents were trapped inside. I remembered watching from the edge of the forest, unable to do anything to help them.

I woke up in a panic. I could still feel the heat, even though I was awake. It felt as if there was fire consuming everything around me. I left Astrid's house as silently as I could, and ran. I didn't pay attention to where I was going, until I found myself at the edge of the woods. I should've stopped there. In the back of my mind, I knew Hiccup and Astrid would be worried when they found me gone. But something urged me on.

When I entered the woods, I started to calm down again. There was a familiar and comforting feeling being surrounded by the trees I slowed down and eventually sat, just enjoying the familiarity and comfort of my surroundings and try to forget the horrible dream.

Hiccup

I woke up to someone knocking on my door. I looked outside and when I saw how late it was, I let out a groan. _Why would someone be knocking in the middle of the night?_ I thought. I heard knocking again, and when I realized that whoever it was wasn't going to go away I slowly got up and went to answer the door. When I opened it, I saw Astrid standing outside, eyes wide with worry.

"Astrid," I started, instantly alert, "what's wrong?"

"Catherine Mary is gone," she told me. "I saw her run into the woods."

**Well, that's it. Are you ready for my sob story? I have been really, really busy the past to weeks. Last weekend I had this class on Sunday to get ready for the ACT and I was doing homework on Saturday. The week before I took the SAT on Saturday and was volunteering on Sunday. And last Wednesday I had TWO papers due that I hadn't even started because of events mentioned above and homework over the rest of the week. I had to stay up until 1:00 Tuesday night to finish one of them! Luckily the second one was due at 11:59 Wednesday night so I didn't have to stay up even later to finish it. Even through all that, I updated chapters for you. Instead of sleeping in, I got up to edit the chapters and post them so that you wouldn't have to wait an indefinite amount of time to read them. Are you feeling guilty yet? Do you know how you could show me your appreciation for my dedication to this story? ****_REVIEW!_**** Reviews make me happy! So, please review!**

**Oh! Also, thank you to kaitlynn19, VictoryD, and Snitchstar for reviewing!**


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